Any weeds yet to come up?

[Chef_uk]

Whilst I've been happily sowing seeds in pots indoors, I've been putting off direct sowing in the soil for fear of weed identification. Nothing has come up from the carrot bed yet (weeds) and I'm getting worried. the onion bed needed hoeing and is now weed free bar the odd one but I've not needed to hoe the carrot bed yet. We did dig out the weeds that were growing under the suppressant but since lifting it off nothing else has grown.

I want to sow the carrots this weekend but knowing my luck they'll germinate at the same time the weeds finally show, unless you think I'm safe?

[bearded bloke]

Chef,after sowing the seeds fill the drill with dry sand,then the germinating carrots will show in a clearly defined line,pull/hoe anything that appears outside the line

[Chef_uk]

that's brilliant so back fill with sand not the soil?

[bearded bloke]

Yep that's the plan,it also has the benefit that being fine it has good contact on the seed so should aid speedy germination

[Chef_uk]

I'm still none the wiser, the sand lines have faded somewhat and i have growth everywhere. None of my other beds have gone like this. Could it have been from the fleece to tight on the ground rubbing the sand perhaps??? Anyway, which are my carrot seedlings?

[bearded bloke]

Sorry must have missed the bit about covering in fleece,for that you would need to lift it with a peg in the middle (or similar) to stop movement in the wind on the fleece rubbing out the line.
mine were left open & look like .....

Fortunately the centre two rows are carrots,the seedlings have two long slender leaves

If that pic is not clear enough I will get a macro shot now I have worked out attachments

[BigShot]

Chef - I had much the same problem last year.
Didn't have a clue what I was looking for and so had trouble telling weed from crop.

Taking carrots as an example, I sow them pretty much at final spacing so I never have to thin (unless I dropped 2 seeds in one spot) but even then it's not easy to spot which is which at first.

Give it a bit of time. The weeds you've shown so far aren't big enough to shade anything out, so give it some time. Keep en eye out for a load of identical seedlings popping up in a straight line. Once you've seen that you'll know where that row is and can get to work pulling out everything else.

Or you can use the other technique:
If you want to know if something is a weed or a crop, pull it. If it stays where it is, it's a weed. If it comes away in your hand, it's a crop.

[Chef_uk]

Nope, thats perfect, so this is the carrot and absolutely everything is else is weed? If so i'll lift up the fleece and get weeding (thought fleece had to go over as soon as the seeds were sown, oops)

[Chef_uk]

Cheers bigshot, nice tip on the pull technique. Won't forget that one

[BigShot]

That looks kinda carroty to me... though I'm usually inclined to leave it a bit longer to be sure. I let sowing position (rows and spacing) tell me what's a weed and what's not. Less chance of me mis-identifying a seedling and pulling it as a weed that way.

Yea, the "pull technique" always makes me giggle... and you can pretty much count on me pulling up a good few of my seedlings when I get a bit carried away with ham-fisted weeding and yank the wrong thing out.
Once I even pulled up one of the stems on a potato plant when I wasn't paying attention!

That crops can't be the ones that hold tight and weeds come out easily is a constant annoyance.

[bearded bloke]

Nope, thats perfect, so this is the carrot

Yep thats the kiddie,just been playing with macro & on camera zoom & crop ....

... so very similar to yours

[chris]

You could wait until the true leaves are just visible, to be certain but I'd agree too, they do look like carrots!

[shirlthegirl43]

Put some slug deterrant down or your carrot seedlings will vanish before you ever see them! Carrots have fine, feathery growth. I would also say leave everything with a narrow leaf alone until the carrots are big enough to spot - all the round / broad leaved weeds can be removed but take care not to disturb things too much or you may accidentally uproot carrots that are on the way. I usually mark each end of a seed row so that I can track where the seeds were sown.

[Chef_uk]

Thanks Shirley, I have some pellets spare from the Brassica bed so i'll get them down later on

[bearded bloke]

Yep very good point Shirl,I also will do that this afternoon